great PEOPLE DECISIONS Why They Matter So Much, Why They Are So Hard, and How You Can Master Them phần 5 pptx

they’re ubiquitous, however, they’re not particularly valid. Looking at the Big Five model, for example, “conscientiousness” is important in all occupations, but the test simply isn’t very good at capturing that trait in a useful way. 4 One of the key reasons why personality tests are not particularly useful for making people decisions is because they are not job specific. “Extraversion,” one of the Big Five dimensions, is obviously more impor- tant in some occupations than in others. Extrapolation from the Big Five results (interpreting them in a specific hiring instance) remains the prospective employer’s challenge. If someone tests out to be an obsessive- compulsive type, is that good or bad? Well, if you’re hiring a high-level accountant, it’s probably good (even very good!). If you’re hiring a man- ager, it’s almost certainly bad. I’m confident that personality theories and related testing tech- niques will only improve over time, as researchers continue to make huge advances in the neurosciences. Meanwhile, though, personality tests should be used and interpreted with a grain of salt. 5 You need to go well beyond them if you want to make great people choices. The Power of Emotional Intelligence In the early years of my executive search career, I spent a lot of time try- ing to understand the foundations of personal success and outstanding organizational performance. I read everything that I could get my hands on that seemed to be related to this topic. I was very surprised to discover the huge number of books and articles that made assertions about perfor- mance but lacked both a comprehensive theory and the research needed to back up that theory. In 1995, two of my colleagues suggested that I read a book entitled Emotional Intelligence, by a researcher named Daniel Goleman. 6 Goleman (as I was soon to discover) had a keen mind that had been well trained. He had received his PhD in clinical psychology and personality develop- 124 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 124 ment from Harvard, and then embarked upon an outstanding journalis- tic career, which included two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize and a Career Achievement Award for journalism from the American Psycho- logical Association. He was elected a Fellow of the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science in recognition of his efforts to communicate the behavioral sciences to the public. As a co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which helps schools introduce emotional literacy courses, Goleman has had an impact on thousands of schools around the world. I read Emotional Intelligence and was much impressed. Goleman de- fined emotional intelligence as the intelligent use of one’s emotions, or (alternatively) as the ability to manage ourselves and our relationships. I’ll provide more details about Goleman’s theory in subsequent sections. But of particular interest to me, back in 1995, was Goleman’s contention that this quality that he called “emotional intelligence,” or emotional competence, could be more important to personal success than IQ. This was not because IQ was irrelevant. Rather, particularly at the top levels of organizations, most people have similarly high IQ levels, as a result of having been filtered and sorted throughout their student days. (The cream has had plenty of time to rise to the top.) But people differ signifi- cantly in their emotional competency, even at the top, and Goleman ar- gued that this phenomenon has not been given enough attention. It was a “hard” book that brilliantly treated a “soft” issue, although it focused more on the personal level, rather than the organizational level. I decided that I wanted to meet with Goleman to discuss the im- plications of his findings for organizations. In October 1996, I finally caught up with Goleman. (He graciously invited me to his home in Maine.) We talked for several hours about what made organizations perform and managers succeed, and the rele- vance of emotional intelligence–based competencies to businesses. I found it fascinating, even thrilling. The depth of knowledge that Gole- man had accumulated, together with his remarkable objectivity and in- tellectual honesty, convinced me for the first time that there was indeed What to Look For 125 ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 125 an impressive body of serious research demonstrating the value of soft skills for success in life, in society, and at work—as well as a powerful framework for assessing and developing these crucial skills. We agreed to continue the conversation. All the way home (on a small plane to New York, and then for the duration of the overnight flight to Buenos Aires), I thought about the profound implications of Goleman’s work for people in organizations. In fact, rather than catching up on some much-needed sleep, I drew up a list of issues that I wanted to discuss with Goleman at future meetings. Over the next year, we kept talking. The issues we discussed in- cluded topics such as the spread of managerial performance, predictors of successful performance, research on evaluation methods, the rele- vance of emotional intelligence globally, cross-cultural differences in emotional intelligence, management teams, and organizational and leadership factors that encourage and enhance emotional intelligence in an organization. As we will see, I came to believe more and more fervently in the power of the emotional intelligence construct. The Foundation: Competencies Meanwhile, I also dug deeper into the roots of Goleman’s powerful model, to better understand both its origins and its potential applica- tions. Without a doubt, the individual who has had the most significant impact on the tricky field of predicting performance on the job, particu- larly for senior managerial roles, is the late David McClelland. One of the leading psychologists of the twentieth century, McClel- land in 1973 published a landmark paper entitled, “Testing for Compe- tence Rather Than for ‘Intelligence.’ ” 7 In it, he pointed to the ubiquity of intelligence and aptitude tests in the United States. These tests were employed by all kinds of institutions, and with obvious success. But 126 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 126 McClelland argued that this success was too narrow. He argued that in- telligence testing alone failed to account for successful performance, es- pecially in high-level executive positions. In his seminal paper, McClelland proposed the term competency to describe any characteristic that differentiates typical from outstanding performance in a specific job. That characteristic could include motiva- tion, traits, self-image, knowledge, skills, and, yes, IQ. Starting with some very simple assumptions, such as that past behavior is the best indi- cator of future behavior, McClelland made the case that actual job-related behaviors were the best indicators of potential success. “If you want to test who will be a good policeman,” McClelland wrote, “go find out what a policeman does. Follow him around, make a list of his activities, and sample from that list in screening applicants.” But don’t rely on supervisors’ judgments as who the better policemen are, because “that is not, strictly speaking, job analysis, but analysis of what people think involves better performance.” In his research, McClelland compared two distinct groups: the top 5 to 10 percent, as identified by clear outcome measures, and “typical” performers. Through a complex and iterative process, “competencies” were identified (i.e., behaviors that outstanding performers used more frequently and more consistently than typical performers). In the years since 1973, McClelland’s work has sparked a true revo- lution in the workplace. Competency-based people decisions have re- duced turnover, improved job performance, and deepened the pools of “promotable” staff. Competencies also have been used to support other significant organizational applications, including training, with signifi- cant and lasting positive effects. McClelland’s pioneering work in the competency movement was taken up by several of his students. In 1980, for example, Richard Boy- atzis (whom we’ll return to shortly) published The Competent Manager, which pulled together the early findings in the field and added new un- derstandings. 8 Drawing on a sample of 2,000 people across 12 companies, What to Look For 127 ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 127 Boyatzis identified a core set of competencies crucial to successful man- agement. In 1993, Lyle and Signe Spencer published Competence at Work, which further accelerated the competency movement. 9 The Essentials for Managers and Executives At this point, before returning to my personal odyssey, let me make sev- eral observations about competencies. First, each combination of job and organization calls for a distinctive set of competencies for outstanding performance. Second, the list of typical key competencies for managers and senior executives tends to be short. Third, for each specific position, the relevance of each competence and the required level for successful performance tends to be unique. Over the last several years, we at Egon Zehnder International con- ducted an extensive analysis of our global experience in executive search and management appraisals in our 62 offices worldwide. Based on that analysis, we identified key executive competencies. First, successful man- agers need to have a strong “results orientation” (i.e., be focused on im- proving the results of the business). A weak results orientation means simply wanting to do things well or better; moderate levels translate into meeting and beating goals; above that comes the introduction of im- provements; and finally—at the top—comes the determination to trans- form a business. The second key competency is “team leadership,” which permits leaders to focus, align, and build effective groups. People with low levels of this competency focus on setting goals for the team; moderate levels are about building a productive team; high levels are about building a high-performance team. A third key competency is what we call “collaboration and influ- encing.” Those demonstrating this competency are effective in working with peers, partners, and others who are not in the direct line of their command to positively impact business performance. 128 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 128 And finally, “strategic orientation” enables leaders to think beyond the pressing issues of the day, and beyond their own sphere of responsi- bility. It enables them to think Big Picture. In addition to these four core key competencies, there is a second group of five second-tier competencies, which may also contribute to success at the top. These include “commercial orientation,” demon- strated by the drive to make money; “change leadership,” which means leading people in an effort to transform and realign an organization; “de- veloping organizational capability,” which is about developing the long- term capabilities of others in the organization; “customer impact”; and “market knowledge.” Figure 5.2 summarizes the frequent competencies of effective leaders. What to Look For 129 Strategic Orientation Results Orientation Customer Impact Market Knowledge Commercial Orientation Collaboration and Influencing Developing Organizational Capability Change Leadership Team Leadership Developing Organizational Capability Change Leadership Team Leadership FIGURE 5.2 Frequent Competencies of Effective Leaders Source: Egon Zehnder International. ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 129 There are, of course, other competencies that can be particularly relevant in specific situations. But these nine (the core four plus the sec- ond-tier five) cover most of the waterfront. Setting the Targets In addition to identifying the relevant competencies for each job, it is important to determine what level of each competency is necessary for each position. While the topic of scale competencies exceeds the scope of this book, you ideally should try to identify a target level for each rele- vant competency for successful or outstanding performance for each job. For example, Figures 5.3 and 5.4 depict the circumstances of a life sciences company that was having a difficult time finding the right man- agers for the key position of project manager within its technical ranks. As Figure 5.3 summarizes, few heads of laboratories could make it to the 130 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS - Detection orientation: 80/20 plus entrepreneurial mindset - Process perspective: define tasks to assure overall result - Results orientation: invest in resources according to - expected result - Scientific rigor: 100% reliability of results - Functional perspective: deliver according to task assigned - Cost consciousness: fight for budget and control costs Management Threshold Senior R&D Manager Project Manager Platform Manager Head of Laboratory Specialized Researcher FIGURE 5.3 Understand What You Need, Part I Example: From Scientist to Manager ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 130 project manager level, let alone become a senior R&D manager. An analysis of the requirements for each of these positions confirmed that the profile of the project manager differed in highly significant ways from that of the laboratory head, particularly in the areas of teamwork, cus- tomer focus, change leadership, and strategic orientation. Briefly stated, much higher target levels in each of those competencies were needed for success in the new position. Learning from My Own Failures Now let’s return to my own explorations of competencies and emotional intelligence. What to Look For 131 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Profile of Laboratory Head Profile of Project Manager Strategic Leadership Results Orientation Change Leadership Customer Focus Teamwork Leading People Developing People FIGURE 5.4 Understand What You Need, Part II Example: From Scientist to Manager (Continued) ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 131 On the basis of my interactions with Daniel Goleman in the late 1990s, he invited me to join the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations (CREIO), which he co-chairs. For several years, I had the pleasure of working with a remarkable group of individu- als in this powerful think tank. Most of them held a PhD in organiza- tional psychology, and many of them were former students of the late David McClelland. As a result of my exposure to both Goleman and CREIO, I began analyzing my own professional experiences to see whether emotional intelligence–based competencies were (as Goleman argued) critical to suc- cess. By that point, I had some 11 years of experience, and I personally had interviewed some 11,000 people. Out of that very large sample set, I selected a subset of individuals whom I knew very well, who had been hired by me or by a very close colleague, and whom I had followed con- sistently before, during, and after their hiring. This sample included 250 individuals, mostly in Latin America, out of whom 227 (or slightly more than 90%) had been quite successful. It also included 23 individuals who, in my opinion, had failed at their jobs. A “failure” did not necessarily imply that they had been fired; it meant more broadly that they had not met expectations in terms of either hard results or relationships, or both. For those interested in the details, I summarized this analysis in a chapter in a book (The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace) edited by Daniel Goleman and Cary Cherniss. 10 Simply put, I tried to figure out which had been the one or two most salient characteristics of the hired candidates, and determine whether there was any correlation between those characteristics and their success (or failure) on the new job. I did look at three broad categories: IQ, experience, and emotional intelli- gence. These were relative evaluations, in the sense that I was compar- ing each of the hired candidates with other candidates for the position in each case. The results of that analysis completely transformed my perspective. 132 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 132 First, as illustrated in Figure 5.5, the most frequent combination I real- ized I was usually looking for was relevant experience plus high emotional in- telligence (EI), which turned up in 40 percent of the cases. These candidates turned out to be extremely successful, with a failure rate of only 3 percent. Stated slightly differently, when I went looking for candi- dates with outstanding EI and a very relevant experience, 97 percent of the cases had been successful, despite the challenges of appointing a new manager. As also illustrated in Figure 5.5, the other two typical combinations (either experience plus IQ, or EI plus IQ) each were present in one out of four of my searches. Notably, however, when candidates excelled in terms of IQ and relevant experience, but did not have a high level of EI, they failed 25 percent of the time! I found this startling, and illuminating. As a result, I did additional analyses on this data, such as that illustrated in Figure 5.6, which dis- plays the profiles of failures versus successful managers, indicating the What to Look For 133 Experience + EI Experience + IQ EI + IQ 40% 24% 24% 3% 25% 4% Profile Frequency Failure Rate FIGURE 5.5 Failure Rates for Various Profiles ccc_people_117-156_ch05.qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 133 [...]... is very important to define what you are looking for with a team perspective in mind is that, in many cases, you simply can t find Superman, Batman, and Spiderman (or their female counterparts!) all in the same individual Looking at the team can help you solve important leadership and managerial challenges that you can t solve just with one key individual, no matter how great that individual Putting It... competencies There are many ways in which EI has been defined, and therefore many clusters of competencies and many ways of measuring them The most useful is the model developed by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis, which includes four clusters: (1) self-awareness (where the ccc _people_ 117- 156 _ch 05. qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 142 142 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS respective competencies are emotional self-awareness, accurate... What are you aspiring to, over the long term? David McClelland pointed to three great motivators: the need for achievement, the need for affiliation, and the need for power. 15 Well, how motivated are you? Are you willing to make major sacrifices to satisfy one or more of those needs? Second, you need the ability to learn from experience Morgan McCall and others make this case eloquently.16 Do you seek... two-part question is “yes, and no.” The best executives I have seen in action go out of their way to try to test for honesty and integrity in their candidates They never, ever, make concessions regarding values in a candidate In Winning, Jack Welch describes integrity as the first acid test you need to conduct before you even think about hiring someone.17 ccc _people_ 117- 156 _ch 05. qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page... what characterizes the people who help a company move from good to great Here’s the first of several criteria he listed: The right people share the core values of an organization People often ask, How do we get people to share our core values?” The answer is: you don’t The key is to find people who already have a predisposition to your core values and to create a culture that so rigorously reinforces... significantly larger ccc _people_ 117- 156 _ch 05. qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 146 146 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS Here, I’m invoking a broader definition When I refer to potential, I’m asking whether an individual has the ability to grow significantly in the future, and therefore take on larger challenges As I see it, potential consists of three main components First, of course, you need ambition Are you hungry? What are. .. up with a list that is so exhaustive (and exhausting!) that you can t possibly find the right candidate Avoid the trap of thinking that any single candidate will have every quality on your long list Instead, keep in mind the competencies that are in short supply among your existing team, and look hardest for those competencies among your candidates One of the most successful hiring processes that I... my native country five years earlier, and by this point, I had almost no business connections The office was new, so there was no research department We had no databases, I 157 ccc _people_ 157 -192_ch06.qxd 4/3/07 1:12 PM Page 158 158 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS and of course in those days there were no online databases, search engines, or other Internet-based resources So that was the backdrop for my first... competencies are essential for any job and are key for outstanding performance As discussed in Chapter 2, performance in complex jobs has a huge spread If you can assess emotional intelligence–based competencies, you can better predict outstanding performance and therefore generate large economic value The Bottom Line on Emotional Intelligence But that sort of statement won’t surprise well-informed leaders and. .. develop such a list, but you will find that it’s well worth that investment ccc _people_ 117- 156 _ch 05. qxd 4/3/07 1:11 PM Page 152 152 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS For example, a consumer-goods company that was hiring a new marketing manager came up with three critical incidents: 1 The new manager was certain to face sudden and unexpected price cuts by competitors, and would have to know how to react swiftly 2 . hired candidates with other candidates for the position in each case. The results of that analysis completely transformed my perspective. 132 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS ccc _people_ 117- 156 _ch 05. qxd. was soon to discover) had a keen mind that had been well trained. He had received his PhD in clinical psychology and personality develop- 124 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS ccc _people_ 117- 156 _ch 05. qxd. Germany, and Japan) were absolutely fascinating. Figure 5. 9 displays the profiles of failures versus successful managers for the three 138 GREAT PEOPLE DECISIONS ccc _people_ 117- 156 _ch 05. qxd 4/3/07